UK late filing penalties in numbers: Companies House and HMRC data

In short: Companies House levied 303,412 late filing penalties worth £156.6 million in the year to 31 March 2026, about 830 a day, and a quarter of them were doubled because the previous year's accounts were also late (Companies House annual report 2025 to 2026). Since April 2019 the total passes £1 billion. Taxley prepares and files the Company Tax Return (CT600) for £49.95 with micro-entity accounts, then files the accounts at Companies House once the return is paid and finished.

Take the 30-second check to see whether Taxley fits your company, or read how Companies House late filing penalties work.

Key facts (checked on 4 October 2026)

How many late filing penalties does Companies House issue each year?

Companies House levied 303,412 late filing penalties in 2025 to 2026, up 2% on 297,682 the year before (annual report). That is about 830 penalties for every day of the year, set against a register of 5.48 million companies, or roughly one penalty for every 13 sets of accounts registered in the year.

Companies House late filing penalties, 2019 to 2020 to 2025 to 2026

Sources: Companies House annual reports and accounts, 2020 to 2021 to 2025 to 2026, 2019 to 2020 figures as reported in the 2020 to 2021 report, later years from their own year's report.

The pandemic explains the swings in the series. Penalties fell to 181,410 in 2020 to 2021 because companies were automatically given a 3-month extension to their filing deadline, Companies House's annual report for that year says (Companies House annual report 2020 to 2021). The deferred late filings then arrived together: 2021 to 2022 brought a record 383,276 penalties, which the following report attributes to companies recovering from the pandemic (Companies House annual report 2021 to 2022). Since 2023 to 2024 the number has settled at around 300,000 a year. On Taxley's arithmetic, the 2025 to 2026 total is 39% higher than in 2019 to 2020, the last year before the pandemic, and the value of penalties is 64% higher. The register has grown over the same period, but the penalty count has grown faster than the number of companies eligible to file, which rose from about 4.05 million to 4.91 million between March 2020 and March 2026.

How much do late filing penalties cost UK companies in total?

Companies House levied penalties worth £156.6 million in 2025 to 2026 and £157.2 million the year before. Adding the seven years from April 2019 to March 2026 gives £1,004.1 million from 2,003,742 penalties, on Taxley's arithmetic. Penalties collected are paid entirely to HM Treasury's Consolidated Fund (annual report).

The amount levied isn't the amount collected. The average penalty fell to £516 in 2025 to 2026, from £528 the year before and £538 in 2023 to 2024, and the registrars used their discretion not to collect £5.3 million, or 3.4% of penalties levied (Companies House annual report 2025 to 2026). Unpaid penalties become debts. In the same year Companies House wrote off £106.9 million of penalty debt as unrecoverable, up from £80.2 million: 19% of it was owed by companies that have since been dissolved, and 73% had been through the whole debt collection process without being paid. Companies House also writes off penalty debts more than 4 years old. Running the scheme isn't paid for by filing fees: the Department for Business and Trade provided £14.5 million in 2025 to 2026 for handling appeals and collecting the debts. The total therefore measures what late filing costs companies on paper. The write-offs include older penalty debts and do not measure the unrecovered share of 2025 to 2026 penalties.

How do Companies House penalties scale with lateness?

Half of all penalties are for accounts up to a month late, but the expensive ones are rare. In 2025 to 2026, penalties for accounts more than 6 months late were 7.5% of private company penalties but 33.5% of their value, on Taxley's analysis of Companies House management information.

Private limited company penalties issued in 2025 to 2026, by lateness

Source: Companies House management information 2025 to 2026, Table 3; single and double penalties combined by band.

The penalty bands are fixed by law, so cost rises in steps rather than by the day. Regulation 4 of the Companies (Late Filing Penalties) Regulations sets £150, £375, £750 and £1,500 for a private company, and doubles each amount when the previous year's accounts were also late (SI 2008/497 reg 4). The single most expensive band shows how the money concentrates. In 2025 to 2026, Companies House issued 11,835 double penalties of £3,000 for accounts more than 6 months late: 3.9% of private company penalties, but £35.5 million, or 23.1% of their value, according to Table 3 of its management information (Companies House management information 2025 to 2026). Public companies pay £750 to £7,500 and received 366 penalties worth £1.2 million. Limited liability partnerships pay the private company rates and received 3,341 penalties worth £1.5 million. The management information is unaudited, so its total of 304,187 penalties differs slightly from the 303,412 in the annual report.

How often are penalties doubled for repeat late filing?

About one penalty in four is a double penalty. Companies House levied 73,374 double penalties worth £77.9 million in 2025 to 2026, which is 24.2% of all penalties but 49.7% of their value. A penalty doubles when the previous year's accounts were also late (annual report).

Repeat late filing now accounts for about half the money, up from about two-fifths before 2022. On Taxley's arithmetic from the annual reports, double penalties made up 43.8% of the value of penalties in 2019 to 2020, 42.1% in 2020 to 2021 and 40.9% in 2021 to 2022, then 48.3% in 2022 to 2023, 51.3% in 2023 to 2024, 50.6% in 2024 to 2025 and 49.7% in 2025 to 2026 (Companies House annual reports 2020 to 2021 to 2025 to 2026, one report per year). The rise followed the 2021 to 2022 peak: a company late in 2021 to 2022 incurred a double penalty if its 2022 to 2023 accounts were also late. Companies House's annual report describes double penalties as levied against companies that filed late for 2 successive years or more, so a company that is late every year pays double every year after the first (Companies House annual report 2025 to 2026). For a company already late once, filing the next accounts on time is the step that saves the most.

What share of UK companies file their accounts late?

At 31 March 2026, 98.68% of the 4.91 million companies required to file were up to date with their accounts, leaving 64,285 overdue on that day (management information). The last published on-time rate, for 2021 to 2022, showed 93.2% of accounts filed by the deadline, so about 1 in 15 sets arrived late.

The two measures answer different questions. The 31 March figure is a snapshot of companies still overdue on one day, from Table 1 of Companies House's management information, which also shows 96.0% of companies up to date with their confirmation statement, leaving 195,636 behind (Companies House management information 2025 to 2026). Accounts compliance on that measure has stayed between 97.8% and 98.7% every year since 2016 to 2017. The on-time rate counts every late filing, including accounts that were only a day late and were up to date by the snapshot. Companies House published it in its annual reports up to 2021 to 2022: 94.9% in 2019 to 2020 (annual report 2020 to 2021), 95.5% in 2020 to 2021 and 93.2% in 2021 to 2022 (Companies House annual report 2021 to 2022). Later reports don't include it. Companies House registered 4,073,353 sets of accounts in 2025 to 2026, of which 43.4% were micro-entity and 16.4% dormant accounts.

How many late filing penalty appeals succeed?

Companies House received 56,888 appeals against late filing penalties in 2025 to 2026, roughly one for every five penalties levied (annual report). The independent adjudicators' latest report, for 2024 to 2025, says penalties were cancelled or not collected in 10,258 cases, 22% of the 47,673 first-stage appeals that year.

Few appeals reach the final independent stage, and most of those fail. The adjudicators considered 466 cases in 2024 to 2025 and allowed 27 of them, or 6%, in full or in part; nearly a third of the appeals they saw came from dormant companies (independent adjudicators' report 2024 to 2025). The same report puts the share of penalties appealed at 15% in 2024 to 2025, down from 26% in 2020 to 2021, although its count of penalties raised, 317,985, uses a different basis from the 297,682 levied in Companies House's annual report. The backlog of late filing penalty appeals fell from about 7,000 at 31 March 2025 to about 1,500 at 31 March 2026 (Companies House annual report 2025 to 2026). The grounds Companies House accepts, and the ones it usually rejects, are set out in the guide to Companies House late filing penalties.

Does Companies House prosecute directors for late accounts?

Yes, and prosecutions are rising. Companies House laid 3,418 charges in court for failing to deliver annual accounts in 2025 to 2026, up 26% on 2,707 the year before, and secured 1,663 convictions (management information). Across accounts and confirmation statement offences, 1,525 directors were convicted, out of 3,416 summonsed.

Prosecution sits on top of the company's penalty and is aimed at the directors. Section 451 of the Companies Act 2006 makes every person who was a director immediately before the deadline guilty of an offence if the accounts aren't delivered, unless that director took all reasonable steps to file on time (Companies Act 2006 s.451). Charges for failing to deliver accounts fell to 436 in 2020 to 2021 and have climbed every year since, to 1,381 in 2021 to 2022, 2,071 in 2022 to 2023, 2,400 in 2023 to 2024, 2,707 in 2024 to 2025 and 3,418 in 2025 to 2026, according to Table 6 of Companies House's management information (Companies House management information 2025 to 2026). The 2025 to 2026 figure is still below the 4,052 charges laid in 2016 to 2017. Convictions for the accounts offence rose by 25% in a year, from 1,335 to 1,663, while 926 charges were withdrawn as no longer in the public interest and 1,191 were adjourned to a later hearing.

How much are HMRC's Corporation Tax late filing penalties?

HMRC charges £200 the day a Company Tax Return is late, another £200 at 3 months, then 10% of the tax still unpaid if the return is 6 months late (18 months after the accounting period ends), rising to 20% if it is 12 months late (2 years after the period ends) (GOV.UK). The flat amounts, set in 1998, doubled for returns due on or after 1 April 2026.

HMRC doesn't publish how many Corporation Tax late filing penalties it charges, so the best official guide to their scale is the government's own costing. HMRC's policy paper says the old amounts were worth around half their original value in real terms after nearly 30 years of inflation, and expects the increase to raise £45 million in 2026 to 2027, rising to £70 million a year by 2030 to 2031 (HMRC: Increases to Corporation Tax late filing penalties). A return late three times in a row now costs £1,000, and £2,000 once it is more than 3 months late. Companies House's penalties haven't been uprated in the same way. They have stood at £150 to £1,500 for a private company since 1 February 2009, and consumer prices have risen by 68% since then, from a CPI index of 85.6 in February 2009 to 143.6 in August 2026 (ONS: CPI index). On Taxley's arithmetic, a £1,500 penalty in 2009 money would be about £2,516 today, so the current amounts are worth about 60% of their original value.

What can one year's late paperwork cost a company in total?

A private company whose accounts are more than 6 months late and whose Company Tax Return is more than 3 months late faces £1,900 in flat penalties: £1,500 from Companies House (GOV.UK) and £400 from HMRC. A company that was also late the year before, with a third late return in a row, faces £5,000.

Taxley's calculated timeline: year end 31 March 2026, accounts due 31 December 2026, CT600 due 31 March 2027

The repeat column assumes last year's accounts were late, which doubles the Companies House penalty, and that this is the third late CT600 in a row. The timeline shows why the Companies House date matters most: accounts are due 9 months after the year end, 3 months before the CT600 (Companies House: Life of a company), so a company that files both on the CT600 deadline already owes Companies House £375. Under Companies House's month rule, each band ends on the corresponding date of a later month, so the 1-, 3- and 6-month bands end on 31 January, 31 March and 30 June 2027. HMRC's 3-month point falls on 30 June 2027, and its tax-geared penalty applies once the return is more than 18 months after the period end. Late payment of the tax itself adds interest on top, which these totals leave out. The flat amounts in the timeline use HMRC's doubled rates, which apply to this return because it is due after 1 April 2026 (GOV.UK: Company Tax Returns penalties).

How can Taxley help a company file on time?

Taxley (taxley.co.uk), UK online software that prepares and files the Company Tax Return (CT600) with HMRC and the annual accounts with Companies House, files micro-entity, small, abridged and dormant accounts at Companies House at no extra cost, once the return is paid and the accounts are finished. It doesn't file confirmation statements.

Taxley has filed accounts at Companies House since 28 September 2026. Because a company's accounts are due 9 months after its year end and its CT600 12 months after (GOV.UK: Company Tax Returns), the Corporation Tax deadline calculator shows the Companies House accounts date beside the Corporation Tax payment and CT600 dates, so the earlier deadline is visible from the start. Finishing the whole return by the Companies House date avoids the most common penalty in the figures above, the £150 for accounts up to a month late. Taxley is software, not a tax adviser: it doesn't pay the company's Corporation Tax, and it doesn't support audited companies or companies in liquidation. Filing at Companies House needs the company's 6-character authentication code, and accepted accounts go on the public register. The fee per return, which also covers the Companies House filing, is on the pricing page. Take the 30-second check to see whether Taxley fits your company.

How can you cite or reuse these figures?

Cite the original Companies House or HMRC publication for any single figure, and this page for Taxley's totals and calculations. Every figure comes from official sources published under the Open Government Licence, checked on 4 October 2026. Suggested citation: Taxley, "UK late filing penalties in numbers", taxley.co.uk/guides/late-filing-penalty-statistics, October 2026.

Counts and values of penalties, double penalties and appeals come from each year's Companies House annual report and accounts, as first reported, because that audited series is the one Companies House uses for its own year-on-year comparisons (Companies House annual report 2025 to 2026). The split by lateness band, the compliance rates, the prosecution figures and the accounts registered come from the unaudited management information tables for April 2025 to March 2026 (Companies House management information 2025 to 2026), whose totals differ slightly from the annual report. Taxley's own figures are simple sums and ratios of the published numbers: the seven-year totals add the seven annual reports, the daily rate divides 303,412 by 365, and the real-terms comparison uses the ONS consumer prices index for February 2009 and August 2026. The independent adjudicators' figures use their own count of penalties raised and are quoted only for appeal outcomes. Figures will change when Companies House publishes its 2026 to 2027 report.

Frequently asked questions

Who pays a Companies House late filing penalty?

The company pays, not the directors personally. Section 453 of the Companies Act 2006 makes the company liable to a civil penalty for each year its accounts are late (Companies Act 2006 s.453). Directors separately risk prosecution for not filing.

When did the Companies House penalty amounts last change?

The current amounts have applied since 1 February 2009, when the penalties were increased, the filing period was shortened and double penalties were introduced. Since then consumer prices have risen by about 68%, so the penalties are worth less in real terms.

Do dormant companies get late filing penalties?

Yes. Every company must file accounts each year, trading or not, and dormant accounts were 16.4% of all accounts registered in 2025 to 2026. Nearly a third of the appeals reaching the independent adjudicators in 2024 to 2025 came from dormant companies.

Does HMRC publish how many CT600 late filing penalties it issues?

No. HMRC doesn't publish a count or total value of Corporation Tax late filing penalties. Its policy paper on doubling the flat penalties estimates the increase alone will raise £45 million in 2026 to 2027, rising to £70 million a year by 2030 to 2031.

Where does the late filing penalty money go?

Companies House pays the penalties it collects entirely to HM Treasury's Consolidated Fund. The Department for Business and Trade funds the cost of running the scheme, including appeals and debt collection, which was £14.5 million in 2025 to 2026.

General information, not personalised tax or legal advice. Figures checked at Companies House, HMRC, legislation.gov.uk and ONS sources on 4 October 2026; see the figure ledger for exact locations.